Ukrainian forces claim heavy Russian casualties in assault in east

Redition, 03 Nov 2023 (Lusa) — The Ukrainian Army claimed today that Russian forces lost almost five hundred soldiers and more than thirty technical-military units in the attacks on the city of Avdivka and other areas on the eastern front in the last day.

“Our soldiers remain firm in the defense of the Avdivka area,” wrote Oleksandr Tarnavski, commander of the strategic operational group in that region on his Telegram account.

According to the Ukrainian general, Russian troops carried out unsuccessful offensive actions in Avdivka, Novokalinove (about twenty kilometers north of Avdivka), Opytne (about seven kilometers south of Avdivka) and Pervomaiski (in the northeast region of Kharkiv) .

“Overall, enemy losses amount to 483 people,” Tarnavski said, adding to heavy Russian casualties in recent weeks, although the figures could not immediately be independently confirmed.

Regarding military equipment, Ukraine claims to have destroyed 11 Russian tanks, four armored combat vehicles, six artillery systems, two ‘drones’, eight cars and two ammunition depots, according to the aforementioned report.

Since October, Russia has focused its efforts on trying to surround the Ukrainian city of Avdivka, but, according to the Ukrainian Army, the Russians are suffering massive losses.

Also today, a Ukrainian attack left nine dead in an occupied region of southern Ukraine, said a local official of the Russian occupation authorities.

“Nine deceased people were extracted from the rubble”, said Vladimir Saldo, placed by Moscow in charge of the occupied areas in this part of southern Ukraine, interviewed by the Rossiya 24 television channel.

Previously, another element of the occupation authorities accused Ukrainian forces of an attack on civilian infrastructure in the village of Chaplinka, located in the occupied zone of the Kherson region, in the south of the country.

Konstantin Bassiouk then gave a balance of seven dead and seven injured, saying that doctors were “fighting to save the lives” of two people.

The attack hit “pension fund facilities and a job center”, it added, citing information that could also not be independently confirmed.

Chaplinka is located about one hundred kilometers from Kherson, the capital of the province of the same name, which was recaptured by Ukrainian forces in November 2022.

Russia still controls much of the region and fighting is fierce between the two armies.

After 20 months of war, casualties estimated at hundreds of thousands, among military and civilians, and with the imminent arrival of winter, the situation in Ukraine remains at an impasse.

The two belligerent parties entered the theater of operations in tough bloody battles, but with little significant territorial advances in recent weeks in the east and south of the country.

The military offensive launched on February 24, 2022 by Russia in Ukraine caused, according to the most recent UN data, the worst refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War (1939-1945).

The Russian invasion – justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by most of the international community, which has responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing Russia from political and economic sanctions.

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